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Paul Manafort, the indicted former campaign chairman of U.S. President Donald Trump, claims in a lawsuit that U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller overstepped his authority by charging him with crimes unrelated to Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

Mueller and the deputy attorney general who appointed him, Rod Rosenstein, failed to follow the special counsel rules before a grand jury charged Manafort with money laundering and conspiracy, according to the suit filed Wednesday. The special counsel also charged Manafort with conduct he says he voluntarily disclosed to U.S. authorities in 2014, the suit claims.

Former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort filed a lawsuit against special counsel Robert Mueller. (The Associated Press)

While Mueller’s appointment order lets him pursue “any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation,” his prosecutors improperly built a case that had nothing to do with Russian meddling, according to the complaint.

“The investigation of Mr. Manafort is completely unmoored from the special counsel’s original jurisdiction,” Manafort’s lawyers said in a complaint in federal court in Washington. It has focused instead on unrelated, decade-old business dealings that “had no connection whatsoever to the 2016 presidential election or even to Donald Trump,” they said.

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Mueller’s spokesperson, Peter Carr, said he had not seen the filing and declined to comment.

Mueller's Russian meddling probe reveals first targets. A former campaign adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump has admitted he lied about Russian contacts. Separately, Paul Manafort and a business associate were indicted on felony charges. (The Associated Press)

The lawsuit claims Mueller and Rosenstein, who is overseeing the investigation because Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself, violated the Administrative Procedures Act. The case comes amid increasing attempts by many Republicans and conservative media to attack Mueller as biased and unfair.

The government’s Oct. 27 indictment accuses Manafort and a longtime associate, Rick Gates, of failing to register as agents in the U.S. for political consulting they performed for Ukraine and for pro-Russian politicians there. It claims Manafort laundered money from overseas to buy houses, cars, clothes, antiques and landscaping services. He also is accused of hiding offshore accounts. Both men have pleaded not guilty.

Manafort, 68, who advised Republican presidential candidates in the 1970s and ’80s, later moved into lobbying and political consulting, working with foreign leaders to ingratiate themselves with Washington. His roster of clients, some with unsavoury reputations, included deposed Ukrainian leader Viktor Yanukovych, an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

In his complaint, Manafort said he met voluntarily with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Justice Department on July 30, 2014, and provided detailed explanation of his activities in Ukraine, including his frequent contact with U.S. diplomats in Kyiv “and his efforts to further U.S. objectives in Ukraine on their behalf.”

The indictment charges Manafort with the “very conduct he voluntarily disclosed” three years before Mueller’s appointment, the complaint says.

The criminal case is U.S. v. Manafort, 17-cr-201, U.S. District Court, District of Columbia (Washington). Manafort’s civil suit is Manafort v. U.S. Department of Justice, 18-cv-11, U.S. District Court, District of Columbia (Washington).

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